For all the talk of “changing the culture in Washington,” it appears to be business as usual … only more so.  Things are done – when, and if, they are – by people who play a tough inside game with no spectators. Washington will soon be working on revisions to the tax laws – since, obviously, they are insufficiently complex and contain too few breaks for special interests – and the heavy lifting will be done by the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, and some people who have a special relationship with him.

As Eric Lipton of the New York Times reports: